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• Commercial Skip Software

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Note: This is a guide (mainly) for Windows users. I will assume that you already configured Plex DVR Beta 4 or higher (if not here is a tutorial: ). Part 1: What is MCEBuddy and Comskip? MCEBuddy is basically just a user-friendly GUI (interface) which combines commercial detection from Comskip or ShowAnalyzer (not both at the same time) with transcoding/packaging/backup/automatic detection capabilities, so stuff like FFMPEG, MKVMerge is bundled into nice preselectable Profiles that you can customize.

During the installation process it will also install a Windows Background Service. So everytime you start your PC MCEBuddy is automatically running in the background. You don't even need the GUI opened, it completely runs in the background once you've finished setting it all up. You can download the latest free version (2.3.13 June 2013) of MCEBuddy here:. This version comes bundled with the free version of ComSkip which limits the processing speed of HD and H.264 video to 0.5x (half of playback speed). The donator version removes any restriction.

There is also a donator version of MCEBuddy (latest release 2.4.6 September 2016) which provides more features like hardware supported transcoding (NVENC, QuickSync.) and more automation features. Both donator versions can be bought with Paypal, MCEBuddy via Facebook for $20 and ComSkip for $10.

Do note that MCEBuddy sends the login data almost instantly, Comskip can take up to 24 hours. The following parts (specifically Part 3) are written with the donator versions in mind.

Part 2: Setting up MCEBuddy and ComSkip Now that you've downloaded MCEBuddy 2.4.6+ and Comkip 0.81.092+, simply install MCEBuddy (you can untick ShowAnalyzer during the installation). Open MCEBuddy, on the bottom left access the Settings.

Under Monitor locations, press add and select the path of your DVR library (same path as in Plex). Monitor subdirectories should be selected. You can limit the Search pattern to.ts;.mkv.

Under Expert Settings you can tick Archive original file and set any folder you want (do not use a subfolder inside your DVR library path). This is useful if you want to keep the original recordings so in the rare event that ComSkip removes actual content instead of commercials, you'll have the untouched recording backed up. If you don't want backups of the original recordings select Delete original file instead.

Set the Minimum age before processing to disabled. Now add a new Conversion task, there are four options you can go for depending on your preferences: 1) Detect commercials and remove them, also transcode to a lower file size (slower but takes less space) 2) Detect commercials and remove them, only remux (fast but takes space) 3) Detect commercials and tag them as chapters, transcode 4) Detect commercials and tag them as chapters, remux Option 3) and 4) are useful if you own a Android TV or Apple TV device which support chapters (amoung others). That way when a commercial break is starting, you will simply skip to the next chapter (end of commercial). Even if ComSkip detected the commercial length wrong, you won't need to go back to the untouched recording.

For all four options, the setup is the same. 1) and 3) choose MKV Normal Quality as the profile.

2) and 4) MKV Unprocessed. Leave the Destination path empty! Choose Ad remover (Comskip) and for 3) and 4) tick 'Only detect ads'. Press on the two arrows on the right to open the Advanced Settings. Here untick everything under Library Management/Renaming and Sorting (Plex already does that) and under Audio/Video choose Max width 1920, Quality 100%, tick Detect and optimize video quality, best soundtrack and Multichannel audio.

Now go the Expert Settings untick everything under Media Information Management and Selection Filters except Add information. Under Subtitles and Chapters tick Add subtitles and chapters. Now that you've added the conversion task, expand the General Settings (once again click the two arrows on the right), set Concurrent conversions based on your CPU passmark score (I'd recommend one conversion for every 2000 points, so 8000 Passmark score = 4 concurrent conversions). Untick 'Log conversion jobs' unless you're troubleshooting.

Important: For users who bought the Comskip Donator version, go to the System Settings and then under Comskip path select the path wherever you extracted your Comskip Donator ZIP file. Limitation: While your setup is now fully automated, it does have one major drawback. All Gracenote Metadata will be lost this way.

Why is that important? Gracenote provides the EPG (electronic program guide) for Plex. When media is finished recording Plex will start with adding Gracenote-provided metadata. Then it will attempt to enhance it with TVDB metadata. Problems start to arise if you watch your random woodworking show, sports, news and documentaries, everything that doesn't match with TheTVDB. This is especially a problem if the country you're living in doesn't have English as their primary language (TheTVDB has way more content for English stuff). In practice this means that there won't be any item description, photos and the name of the item itself will be the recording date, not a normal name.

Gracenote metadata can currently not be saved within the recordings, it's all saved in the Plex Media Server. The moment you replace the original recording with your MCEBuddy converted file, all Gracenote metadata will be lost. But don't worry, there is a way to keep them which brings us to Part 3. Part 3: Using the Plex postprocessing option With Plex DVR Beta 2 (1.2.0.2765) you now have the option to add a postprocessing step. Before the recording gets moved from the temporary.grab folder (which is a subfolder of your DVR library) to your DVR library, you can now set your own script which executes every time after a recording is finished. These are the settings you need to change inside MCEBuddy compared to Part 2 of the guide: 1) If you want a backup of the original recording tick Archive manually added original file (under General Settings). Under System Settings/Folder Management select an Archive folder which is separate from any DVR library path.

If you don't want backups of the original recordings select Delete manually added original file instead. Make sure that under Conversion Task/Advanced Settings/Subtitles Extract Subtitles and closed captions is deselected because in the.grab subfolder only one file should exist (the converted file), not any other file (like the original recording or an.srt file). If you chose Option 3 or 4 in the beginning you'll have edit the Profiles.conf (see this ) otherwise an.edl file will remain in your.grab subfolders preventing Plex from moving your file. 2) Delete the monitor location. The script below will add the recordings automatically to the MCEBuddy queue. Download the following.bat script ( only works with MCEBuddy 2.4.6 or later) from here: You may need to edit the downloaded script (normal Editor is sufficient) to specify (in each instance) the location of your MCEBuddy2x installation. Unless you changed the path during the installation, it should be C: Progra1 (stands for Program Files).

Now go to Plex Web (2.9.3 or later) - Settings - Server - DVR - DVR Settings and under Postprocessing Script specify where the.bat script is located (e.g. C: Downloads MCEBuddyScriptv2.bat). FAQ: Q: Should I turn on Transcoding in the Device settings of Plex DVR? A: On-the-fly 'Live' transcoding is incredibly CPU intensive and (most often) produces a bad quality to size ratio. Wouldn't recommend it. It's better to transcode the recordings after they are finished in the postprocessing step. Live-transcoding is also inefficient.

Why would you mildly tax your CPU (not 100% load) for the whole duration of the recording(s) which still results in high boost clocks and increased power draw for let's say one whole hour if you could do multiple transcodes after recordings are finished with 100% CPU load (and same power usage) for about 1/3 of the time? You also run in risk of experiencing stuttering/playback issues when you record multiple items at the same time with transcoding turned on. Thanks, this is super helpful as I'm trying to replace Windows MCE with Plex DVR.

I took a separate approach though because I ran into an issue using that search pattern to only catch (in my case).ts files. MCE Buddy would never find any of them for some reason. Instead, I send my recordings to a new library/folder called Recorded TV. MCE Buddy looks in that folder, does it's thing and outputs to the primary TV Folder and then deletes the original.

Seems to work fine and I haven't noticed the Gracenote issues you highlighted. It's also kind of nice to be able to watch a show right away with commercials or if I'm not in a rush I can watch them without the next day. Now, what I really want to find is a script that can do all of this in Linux as I'd like to move to Unraid and not have to use a full Windows VM just to run MCE Buddy. Because I ran into an issue using that search pattern to only catch (in my case).ts files. MCE Buddy would never find any of them for some reason Did you try clearing your MCEBuddy Logs? MCEBuddy will add all converted files to a log, so they won't be converted again. Instead, I send my recordings to a new library/folder called Recorded TV.

I'd definitely recommend creating seperate libraries for the recordings. That's what I meant with 'DVR library'.

Seems to work fine and I haven't noticed the Gracenote issues you highlighted You talk about 'shows' so I assume you mean TV series? As long as the content matches with the TVDB there will be no problem. Try to record a something like a random documentary (which obviously won't exist in TVDB) and you'll see. Now, what I really want to find is a script that can do all of this in Linux Commercial removal: Only mark the commercials as chapters:.

I did not try clearing the logs. Good suggestions. Yes, I meant TV series. I don't record many documentaries as I'm OTA and the PBS station is the wrong direction. Still good to know.

Ok, those post-processing scripts are exactly what I need! Thanks for pointing those out. I'm thinking I'll work first on removing the commercials and then eventually find some other scripts for replicating MCE Buddy's transcoding functions. Probably won't be quite as easy to setup as MCE Buddy but should be pretty hands off once it's all setup. Also, it'll likely be a little faster given I currently use the free version of MCE Buddy. Thanks again for the info.

So it actually converts now. Thanks for that. But now the post process fails and it leaves the file in the.grab folder once it's done converting: Oct 17, 2016 12:00:14.236 8584 DEBUG - Jobs: 'C: Users HTPC Documents PDVR MCEBuddyScriptv2.bat' exit code is 255 Oct 17, 2016 12:00:14.236 8584 ERROR - MediaRecorder: Postprocessing script 'C: Users HTPC Documents PDVR MCEBuddyScriptv2.bat' exited with error code 255.

Commercial Skip Software

Oct 17, 2016 12:00:14.236 8584 DEBUG - Activity: Ended activity c3075268-148a-4170-8d713c3. Oct 17, 2016 12:00:14.236 8584 DEBUG - MediaGrabber: Operation for Tormenta de Pasiones - Episode 10-17 completed with status 5 (An error occurred while postprocessing the recording.) Any ideas?

Step One: Download and Try Out Comskip To get started, head to the and grab the most recent version of the software. It will be a.zip file called “comskip”, followed by the version number.

Find the highest version number, or the most recent date. As of this writing it’s, version 81092 from March 7, 2016. Open the ZIP file and drag its contents to any folder you’d like. I recommend C: comskip, and will be using that in the rest of the tutorial, but you can put it wherever you want. There are a bunch of files here, but to get started with Comskip, we’re going to use “ComskipGUI.exe” to indentify some commercials. In a separate Windows Explorer window, browse to your PVR’s collection of recorded episodes, and pick a video you’d like to watch without commercials.

Drag the video file to the icon for ComskipGUI.exe, and you’ll get a first hand view of how Comskip works. You’ll see the video itself in real time, and colors graphs that show Comskip’s attempts to identify commercials. It will sometimes loop back to re-check things, and the process can take a while, but it’s fascinating to watch. You’ll see the tool identify the network logo displayed during broadcasts, notice black frames, and try to identify things like spikes in volume. When the process is done, Comskip will output a simple text file. This is the time, in seconds, when Comskip thinks commercial breaks start and end in the video you just tried out. We’re just getting started.

Step Two: Configure Comskip To Create EDL Files In Real Time NextPVR can’t use that text file to skip commercials, however–it needs an “EDL” file. Happily, Comskip is capable of making those, it just needs to be told to do so. There are two ways to do this.

The first is to open comskip.ini, located in your Comskip folder, with a text editor (Notepad is fine). Then ensure the following lines include a “1” instead of a “0”: outputedl=1 livetv=1 Here’s what that looks like in the text document: The first, outputedl=1, tells Comskip to create an “EDL” file. It should be enabled by default in recent versions of Comskip, but it’s worth checking just in case. The second configuration, livetv=1, tells Comskip to create this EDL file in real time, which is useful for skipping ads while pausing live TV. If you’d rather not edit the text file, you can instead open the “ComskipINIEditor” program and use the GUI configuration tool. You’ll find the “outputedl” option under “Output Control”: And the “livetv” option under “Live TV”: It doesn’t matter if you configure the file using the GUI or using a text editor, so use whichever method you prefer. Step Three: Configure NextPVR To Run Comskip While Recording Next up, you need to tell NextPVR to run Comskip.

First, we need to find the NextPVR configuration folder. By default, this is in C: Users Public NPVR, but it could be different if you took some custom steps while installing NextPVR. When you find the folder, open the “Scripts” subfolder within it. Right-click in the window, hover over “New”, then click “Text Document”. Name the file ParallelProcessing.bat, making sure to replace the.txt extension fully. Right-click the file to open it with a text editor (Notepad is fine).

Then, paste the following three lines into the file: @echo off cd /d 'C: comskip' comskip%1 This will tell NextPVR to run Comskip as you’re recording shows. If you’d rather have Comskip run after a recording is complete, instead of during, simply rename the file to PostProcessing.bat. Either way, Comskip will now run automatically every time a show is recorded. You can verify this is happening by browsing to your recordings’ folder: you’ll find the TXT and ELD files for your recording there.

Play that recording from NextPVR, and you’ll see that the ads don’t appear. Step Four: Configure Kodi To Skip Ads Chances are, you aren’t watching shows in the NextPVR app itself–you’re watching them through an all-in-one media center program like Kodi. Unfortunately, the official NextPVR addon for Kodi streams the content from NextPVR, and support for Comskip is not enabled. It is unlikely this is going to change anytime soon, which is unfortunate, but there are workarounds. You have two main options:.

Browse to the actual files in Kodi, instead of watching them via the “Recordings” library. Use the add-on to watch recordings instead of the default NextPVR add-on for Kodi.

The first method is less elegant, but much easier. You need to add your recorded videos to Kodi as a video source, then browse to it when you want to watch something. Under “Videos”, select “Files”. From here, select “Add Videos”.

You’ll be shown this window: Select “Browse”, then find your folder of recorded shows. Exclude the folder from scans in the next step. The source is now added to your “Files” section, and you can watch your videos from here commercial-free.

This is a more combersome option, because it means adjusting to a new user interface that doesn’t play nicely with all Kodi skins. (Some skins may let you add this folder as a “Favorite”, though, making it easier to access.) It also means you won’t have episode summaries, which is a bummer. If that bothers you (and it really bothered me), I recommend you look into instead. This is an alternative Kodi plugin for NextPVR, and it supports Comskip.

It’s very complex, though, so we won’t be discussing it in this particular guide. Step Infinity: Fine-Tune Your Comskip Settings For Accuracy Comskip isn’t perfect. Identifying what’s an ad and what’s part of your show can be tricky, and sometimes Comskip makes mistakes. If you notice the same ones happening again and again, you can edit the “comskip.ini” file to better identify things. Personally, I’ve had great luck with the default settings.

I haven’t seen a commercial in months, except for a few station promos. But TV varies from country to country, and different TV providers work differently as well. Guessing and testing might be necessary to make things perfect for you, so play around with “ComskipINIEditor.exe” if you’re not getting the results you want. Alternatively, there are a few to try out on the official forum.

A few US-specific ones are offered, along with Canada and Australia. They may help point your experimentation in the right direction.